PRAGUE — Bells tolled across the Czech Republic at noon Monday to honor those who have died of COVID-19 in one of the hardest-hit European Union countries.

A 95-year-old man, who is the first known Czech victim, died on March 22, 2020 at Prague’s Bulovka hospital.

The death toll has reached almost 25,000 since the start of the pandemic in the nation of 10.7 million.

Coronavirus infections have been on the decline since the government imposed a tight lockdown earlier this month, but new cases and death rates still remain high.

Petr Pospichal, a former anti-Communist dissident who helped organize the remembrance, told Czech public radio that it was the right thing to do for people to observe a minute of silence wherever they were.

Pospichal says it’s also necessary to realize that the pandemic isn't over yet and people are still dying.

The country has almost 1.5 million confirmed cases, and 24,810 deaths.